The Rosewood Jig
There might be something Scottish, maybe even Scott Skinnerish about this jig. I heard it from Sean McGuire but I'm OK.
May 14, 2007•2 min
Irish Flute Tunes
Traditional Irish Tunes Played on the Flute (iflute@googlemail.com)
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Episodes
The Green Groves of Erin
I hadn't played this tune for a long time until I thought I had been asked to record it here. Once I'd finished the process I realised that "The Green Groves of" is not a synonym for "Farewell to". I'll maybe take a trip to the airport and get some inspiration for the tune I was supposed to play. (I think I had a mish-mash of farewell to green groves in Erin's Ireland earlier. I hope this particular tangled hank of yarn has now been been unravelled )
May 13, 2007•3 min
Slán le hÉirinn (Farewell to Erin)
Tá súil agam go bhfuil an leagan ceart agam an iarraidh seo. There are too many ways saying bye-bye to places.
May 13, 2007•3 min
Farewell to Ireland
Here's a good reel. I tried playing "The Green Groves of Erin" and ended up with a mixture of that and "Farewell to Erin". Thankyou Alex for pointing that out. Here's a tune as a compromise. "Éirinn " should have 2 "n"s in the dative case anyway (I nearly said "in any case" - I hate languages). At least "Ireland" is less mutable. I'm away to check my grammar and my tune versions. Thanks, Michael.
May 13, 2007•2 min
The Rose In The Heather
Here's a very popular jig. It's a nice tune which is good on the flute. I think I heard a good recording once of the Leitrim flute player Packie Duignan playing it on a record which was made of him and Seamus Horan.
May 13, 2007•2 min
"The Knackers of Navan"
Here's reel from the Donegal fiddle player, John Doherty. I got it from an old tape where he was introducing the tunes. This is the name he gave it.
May 13, 2007•2 min
Griffin From The Bridge (Coleman's Cross)
Here's one I was asked to play. I'd never heard the name before so I looked it up and found this tune. I'd always wondered what it was called. The internet tells me it is also called "Coleman's Cross". It fails to mention what's annoyed him.
May 12, 2007•2 min
The Gravel Walks
Does it gather any moss? This is a Donegal fiddle tune which I was asked to play. It's also called "The Gravel Walks to Granie", referring to a place in Donegal. It sounds good on 2 fiddles with one of them playing a drone on a low A. I'm sorry I couldn't demonstrate this but between holding the flute and typing, my hands were sort of tied, and very tired.
May 12, 2007•3 min
Lawson's Hornpipe
Here's a very melodic and cheerful hornpipe which was recorded by, among others, Paddy Killoran. It's a great tune to change into from another, slightly less contented, hornpipe. There are plenty of these about so I'll not suggest any ones in particular.
May 12, 2007•2 min
The Teatotaller
Here's a very popular reel. It's especially good for learning. I wish I could identify with the subject of the title. Things mightn't seem so LOUD this morning.
May 12, 2007•2 min
The Scholar
Here's a very common reel which is sometimes called "The Poor Scholar". Regarding scholarly matters, I have exams next week and the week after. I'm supposed to be studying for them but have been spending too much time footering with this site. I picked a fine time to find a new hobby. At least if I flunk them (that word seems to look ruder than it sounds) I'll still have a place where I can complain about it ad nauseum. (I've just discovered how to do italics). I'll try to do us all a favour and...
May 11, 2007•2 min
The Morning Star
Here's one of those tunes which lots of people say is very common but can't remember the last time they either heard or played it. No I come to think of it, I've never heard anybody say "Hey, isn't The Morning Star a popular reel?". I've spent too much time typing stuff on this site and am starting to come out with solipsistic claptrap. It is popular though, I think. If you find the record "The Star Above The Garter" of Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, you'll have a good version of this reel clo...
May 11, 2007•2 min
The Banks
I think I said I'd record this tune in my note about "The Bank of Ireland". I'll have to be more careful in future. This tune was composed by an Italian / Scottish violinist called Parazotti. I think it was in E flat. I used to try it on the flute in D. On this occasion I appear to be all at sea.
May 11, 2007•3 min
The Bank of Ireland
Here's a very popular reel. I think someone asked me to record this; sorry it took so long. I'm not sure about naming good things like tunes after banks is totally appropriate. The tired old utterance "at least Dick Turpin wore a mask" comes to mind. There's another tune called "The Bank of Turf" which is I suppose, referring to another Bank of Ireland, i.e. a bank made of Ireland. I'll maybe record it if and when I remember how it goes. There's another one called "The Banks". It's not really a ...
May 11, 2007•3 min
James Byrne's Highland
I learned this tune from the Donegal fiddle player, James Byrne. I thought long and hard about the name and came up with this one.
May 11, 2007•2 min
Off To California
Here's a popular hornpipe which deserves to be so. I'm off for a pint. I don't have to go to California for it which is a relief, although I'm sure the pints are excellent there.
May 11, 2007•2 min
The Pikeman's March
Here's a march popular with flute players where I come from. I'm not sure where it came from originally. I think the "pike" in question is the weapon variety and not the ingredient Olympic divers include to get more points per plunge. Are the extra points as compensation for any potential lacerations they might sustain if the pike bites them? Maybe the chlorine in the pool sedates it and stops this from being a risk anyway. I played it a second time on a piccolo (or pikeolo) but got very self-co...
May 11, 2007•3 min
Lady Gordon's Reel
Here's a slightly less common Gordon's reel than the Lordy version. This one has the marked advantage of being much shorter. I'll have to work myself up to recording the longer one in the next while. In the meantime, I'll go for the Gordons that goes in a glass, with a slice of lime.
May 11, 2007•2 min
Castlekelly
This is a very popular tune. I hope you like it.
May 11, 2007•2 min
The Blackthorn Stick
Here's a great tune for learning. I hadn't played it for a while and had forgotten how good it was for relearning as well.
May 11, 2007•3 min•Ep. 1
The Irishman's Blackthorn
I'm not sure whether the Blackthorn Stick was made from part of this, or whether it was bought from ebay or ebough. (The spellchecker thought it was neither of the above, or the beside). It's a good tune anyway. Oíche mhaith.
May 10, 2007•2 min
The King of the Clans
Here's a popular reel which should be a safe bet at most sessions. I'm afraid I didn't have much time to record this tune so its regal qualities are a bit left to the imagination here. I'm sure they'll be reinvigorated when someone else plays it.
May 10, 2007•3 min
The Humours of Tullycrine
More humours - / ; / ... ? this time in the form of a hormpipe which is a nice, melodic minor-sounding one. I might have first heard it on Michael Tubridy's "Eagle's Whistle" record where he played it on a concertina. There's some lovely flute playing on that record too (all well as the concertina playing I mean).
May 10, 2007•2 min
The Plains of Boyle
I've just realised (the spellchecker wants a "z" in "realised" and "spellchecker" to be 2 words - it can go and ztrangleitzelf for all I care) that I have put hardly any hornpipes on this site. Here's a nice common one called "The Plains of Boyle". I put some more on soon. Cheers, Michael.
May 09, 2007•3 min
The Hollybush
Here's a fairly common reel which should sound well on a flute. I think the prickly nature of its title has had an effect on my playing and there are more than a few holes in it but you should get the jist of what ought to have been going on. (I was wondering whether I should limit the number of tunes I record per day / week so that the tunes don't disappear off the first screen before people have a chance to see them. On the other hand, the index makes them fairly accessible wherever they end u...
May 09, 2007•2 min
Tell Her I Am
Here's a great jig which I think was made popular by a recording of Michael Coleman. Michael Coleman came from Killavel, Co. Sligo and settled in New York where he worked as a tram conductor (I know that wasn't his primary reason for being there but so be it). He was frequently pestered by executives from the likes of Decca and Columbia records to record tunes for them on the fiddle. Fortunately the allure of tram life wasn't always too powerful to be overshadowed by the record moguls' offers of...
May 08, 2007•3 min
The West Wind
Here's a piping reel (Willie Clancy again) which is possibly a version of "Colonel Frazer". There's another tune called "The Braes of Busby" which sounds like a version of it too. I'll record the other 2 tunes with reasonably long intervals between them so you don't hear them all together and find out that they really are just the same tune with different names and that I'm running out of things to play. If that happens I'll have to start singing but I only know one song - a Patsy Clyne number a...
May 08, 2007•2 min
Garrett Barry's Reel
Here's a good reel, or at least it was until I blew it down a hole in a piece of blackwood. It used to get a dryer journey courtesy of Wille Clancy and prior to that, Garrett Barry who was a piper from the generation before Willie Clancy's. I've been raiding the track listings of a few Willie Clancy records lately. Stealing tunes from piping records is usually a good way of getting flute tunes owning to pipers' reluctance to pick tunes in funny keys. They've enough to be getting on with keeping ...
May 08, 2007•2 min
Jenny Picking Cockles
Here's a great reel which I'd probably associate most with Willie Clancy. It's on one of the "Pipering of Willie Clancy" records which Claddagh Records published some years ago. Between picking cockles, welcoming Charlie, tying bonnets, Danging weavers, getting clinkings coming home from the races and all the other activities she's recorded in tune names as having been involved in, its a wonder she had time to blink (I don't remember there being a tune called "Jenny's Blink", so maybe she hadn't...
May 07, 2007•3 min
Sixpenny Money
Here's a piping jig which is good on the flute. It's an especially good one for learning. I have a Seán McGuire LP somewhere with this tune on it. He called it "2 1/2 New Pence". References to the monetary system in Belfast in about 1972 mightn't have stood the test or time, or be too portable, but I'm just passing on what tiny bits of information I might have about the tunes. I'll maybe be a bit more taciturn as regards the late phenomenon who was Seán McGuire.
May 07, 2007•2 min
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